The Jesus Lizard
American rock band
The Jesus Lizard is an American rock band formed in 1987 in Austin, Texas by vocalist David Yow, guitarist Duane Denison, and bassist David Wm. Sims. They relocated to Chicago in 1989 and began working with producer Steve Albini and Touch and Go Records. Adding drummer Mac McNeilly, they became "a leading noise rock band in the American independent underground…[who] turned out a series of independent records filled with scathing, disembowelling, guitar-driven pseudo-industrial noise." The albums Goat (1991) and Liar (1992) have since been recognized as two of the most significant noise rock albums of the era.
Drummer Jim Kimball replaced McNeilly late in 1996 and was himself replaced by Brendan Murphy two years later. Despite releasing a split single with leading alt-rockers Nirvana and signing to Capitol Records, the band did not achieve commercial success amid the alternative rock explosion of the 1990s and disbanded in 1999. With returning drummer McNeilly, their reunion tour ten years later garnered positive responses from audiences and critics. They performed further reunion tours beginning in 2017.
History
Formation and Touch & Go years (1987–1994)
The band began in Austin, Texas, when guitarist Duane Denison asked David Yow, formerly of Scratch Acid, to play bass on some songs he wanted to record. Yow suggested that he sing and have former Scratch Acid bassist David Wm.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “The Jesus Lizard” as american rock band. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as american rock band. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q475227. VIAF identifies the subject as 147364628. The Library of Congress control number is no94021505. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1987, 1989, 1991 and 1992.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Jesus Lizard” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.